Summer Hiatus

You've probably noticed the frequency of our posts have plummeted of late. Consider it the beginning of our official summer break, started a tad late. Also, and predictably, life's responsibilities and many curve balls have impacted our ability, and frankly our desire, to pay attention closely to the HHI scumbaggery (which, after a while, becomes predictable enough to be boring).

Also, there's not really been a lot to report about the HHI idiots of late. Right now, they're busy laying out some truly lame conspiracy theories. These "theories" appear to be driven by the Spanish reporter, Santiago Mata, a guy who has yet to be correct or accurate about Odyssey (we like one Yahoo poster's characterization of him as "Spain's Geraldo Rivera"). This proves he's in league with HHI founders, as many have suspected (and now we can guess where Bartram got his "information" about those supposed mass arrests of Spanish government officials for dealing with Odyssey that amazingly never made it into the press).

This is yet another reason to condemn John Colapinto's sorry-ass judgement in making the history hunters poseurs a part of his New Yorker piece. Hell, he should have also quoted some of those folks who think O.J. Simpson was innocent -- they're just as likely to be as misinformed and ignorant about Odyssey as HHI.

The hilarious part is the HHI nitwits are suggesting Odyssey enlisted the U.S. State Department and the Spanish military to apply pressure on the Spanish government to benefit...wait a minute...yeah, that's right: Follow that thought to its logical conclusion. The mind naturally asks "what the fuck?" Someone in HHI's midst should raise the question begging to be asked: Okay, so there's a conspiracy here and the classic question is who benefited from it? Odyssey? Wha-Huh? Anyone with two orbs in skull sockets witnessed how fair and balanced Spain has behaved toward Odyssey the past few years.

Hey, what can we say? These guys ain't our favorite idiots for nothing!

They also are currently obsessed about goofy, half-thought-out theories involving Hedge fund shenanigans (we expect this to make its way into Doc's libel defense), Odyssey's director of international business, and others. And, as always, these topics are pronounced as major, Earth-shattering news that will absolutely devastate Odyssey, only to inevitably result in dead-ends, lost momentum, and ultimately, complete silence. In essence, HHI is made up of ferociously snapping, yelping chihuahuas leaping around wildly. All that noise and motion for nothing.

Regardless of how much more we continue to post here, we think we've laid down a solid public record of HHI's idiocy and their obvious anti-Odyssey agenda. So, for that reason alone, we''ll forever leave it up as an accessible public record for those seeking some perspective about who HHI is and what they're about.

Also, we are still planning on attending Doc's upcoming libel trial because we know that's going to be ripe with amusement. We can't wait to see him lay out all his conspiracy theories in public, especially since they're all utterly irrelevant to the fundamental issue of his libeling and defaming Odyssey. We expect little patience and much scolding from the judge. We'll report as much as we can.

Finally, we owe much thanks to our dedicated readers and the many contributors who've made this site so popular. If you had told us we would achieve over 8,000 hits in a mere few months of existence, we would have spewed mouthfuls of beer all over you. Though, we're not really all that surprised that there's so much interest in the lying, deceitful, and hypocritical behavior of the poseurs, particularly of the moronic founding pair of John Bartram and Jim McManus. One is soon going to suffer some true pain in a Tampa courthouse and the other simply has to suffer through life as a self-righteous asshole who thinks he's something he's not.

We expect their karma to pay hellacious dividends over time, that's for sure.

Now let's be clear: we're not saying we're going away completely, but we've been feeling quite guilty the past week watching the hit count continue to climb every day with no new content to offer. So, we recommend checking in every couple of weeks, but no more than that. Obviously, if something major breaks with Odyssey, or new lawsuits emerge regarding HHI, we'll be on that like stink on...well, you know.

So, have a great summer, and again, thank you!

Message to John Bartram

Hey Bartram, instead of posting articles about Sotheby's and fraud, and making predictably lame-ass connections to certain treasure hunting companies, why don't you clean up your own barn?

It stinks to the high heavens, man.

Have you been paying attention to the regular embarrassment your co-founder is causing HHI on Yahoo? Is it a sanctioned policy of your members to use deception and deceit in pursuit of all perceived enemies. Having facts and the truth on your side won't do? Is your case against Odyssey so intellectually bankrupt that Nixonian Jr. methods are encouraged and pursued?

Don't bother answering: those questions are rhetorical -- anyone who reads this site regularly knows the answers already.

Oh, but wait: you have some credibility issues of your own, don't you? In fact, we're still awaiting your professional archaeology and historian credentials. Did those get lost in the mail? Sounds to us like these are strictly amateur pursuits for you, just like your horsewhipping and shooting hobbies. How shocked should we really be that it only took five minutes of Internet research to connect your name to allegations of fraud involving ... wait for it ... treasure hunting.

How delicious.

You, McManus and your sordid HHI practices reek of filthy swine. But, that's okay: More and more are catching your scent and paying attention.

You feeling us yet? Oh, we bet you are.

The Answer to our Prayer

Our favorite nautical nimrod has outed himself on Yahoo again, though not in the usual way. "Doc" typically exposes himself by accidentally signing his name to one of his many aliases' posts. In fact, Doc's Friday night meltdowns used to be so frequent they became a source of high entertainment. Tonight's outing, which appears to mark a return to his old act, was much less obvious, but damning all the same.

In recent days the Yahoo board was invaded by an aggressive new anti-Odyssey poster who went by "intelcall22." Many Odyssey regulars suspected it was HHI founder Jim McManus, even as he tried to pass off a persona of a hard, truck-driving country hick. Tonight, the new Bocephus in town distinguished himself by teaming up with that Ape Man Andy buffoon to insult and challenge others to real-world physical confrontations. (Yep, we agree: Let's hope these disturbed, delusional dipshits aren't raising or influencing youngsters.)

One of our intrepid readers noticed that old "Mister Guidrey" -- the "real life" name Doc assigned his new bad-ass alias should anyone care to meet him for a beatdown at his favorite bar (we know, you can't make this stuff up) -- was available for an online chat. So he clicked on the link to do so and, low and behold, the following profile and user photo popped up:

Yep, that sure looks like Doc McManus, aka "intelcall22," alright (click on the image to enlarge).

Not fully convinced? Fair enough. Okay then: Take a close look at the photo of Doc below (on the left) taken directly from his profile page on the HHI website:

That sure is an interesting "Vesper" t-shirt Doc has on, no? Now where have we seen that before?

Busted!

Poor Jim McManus. Let us bow our heads in vespers that someone, anyone, will save this poor dumb bastard from himself. Or not.

Again, here we have another stellar example of how the History Hunter founders operate in the real world. Not through honesty, integrity and truth -- the very traits they so often self-righteously accuse others of not possessing -- but rather by cheap deception, lies and dishonest measures such as this.

Is there more disgrace to come from the HHI poseurs (haven't we given you enough already)? We're not the praying types, but we'd wager some secular Ben Franklins it's all but inevitable.

Stay tuned.

Yawwwwwn

[Photo at left: The oddest looking manchild on the planet displays an anatomically accurate model of John Bartram's teeny-weeny naughty parts, discovered in his Uncle Purv's super secret, don't-you-dare-touch-that "curiosities" drawer. No word of love letters. Yet.]

Gosh it's been boring over at HHI lately, eh? No Doc spouting about Odyssey's daily evil-doings (say, whatever happened to that Spanish shipwreck old nautical-researcher claimed he discovered; did his infamous illegal Chinese immigrants whisk it away?); no Solomon threats of beat downs, shootings or horse-whippings of anonymous American tormentors; no HHI members writing hilariously putrid poetry...wait, hold the line: that one's actually a go.

Nope, just stultifying benign posts about strange-looking kids finding historic artifacts, Nazi loot buried under British homes, and the Holy Grail being carefully excavated from a member's holy....oh, never mind. The point is, we're bored, man.

Why did the HHI guys get so quiet all of the sudden? Did Bartram receive a cease and desist? Did the tough guy shart himself from fear when he finally realized he made one too many threats or loosey goosey allegations about Odyssey? Honestly, we don't know. What we do know, however, is our main source of comedic material has suddenly dried up. Gone missing.

Oh well, there's always that little Jack Ass Doofus of a Sleazeball, Smitty/Fleas, to mock. (Although admittedly, it's a litte too easy, even for us.) Anyone else marvelling at what a complete douchebag he's making of himself over at Yahoo these days? He's obviously bored too, not to mention wicked pissuh drunk on top of it. Nothing good ever comes from mixing those two things, especially when you throw in a degenerate mind like Smitty's.

So what do you say, dear readers? Send us some good stuff: Write something about the poseurs, or anything you like really, and we'll post it. Help us survive these summer daze...or at least help us make it till Doc's libel trial. You know that's going to provide more comic relief than Rodney Dangerfield could shake a schtick at.

Bartram Fartram

As we've said before, it's amazing the plump little nuggets one can randomly find stumbling about HHI's beast of a website. And even though we've had great fun at Bartram's expense regarding his practice of threatening violence toward those he disagrees with, believe it or not, we found yet another example of his self-professed meanliness:

"The media has been - very largely - happy to report Odyssey's case, often quoting verbatim Odyssey's words without due diligence. Who is responsible for that? Not Odyssey, as I see it. It is their job to sell themselves and they have done so with considerable success. So, if it ever comes time to bring out the horse whip, I know who I'll be taking into the yard for some exercise." ~ Horse Master Bartram

Beatings, shootings, horse-whippings -- apparently all in a day's work for the Angry Twit. Smarter people than us have made the appropriate Freudian observations about those who feel the need to constantly tell everyone who will listen how tough they are. Of course, all one has to do is look at a picture of the Hapless Dork to be absolutely stricken with terror by his manly menace. (No, not really; in fact, put some doggie ears on him and you'd have yourself a human facsimile of Disney's Goofy.)

So what's up with this wanker, John Bartram?

He says he stands for what's right in archaeology, and constantly attacks Odyssey about its practice of and credentials in the field, yet he apparently falsely portrayed himself on a number of occasions to certain members of the public as an accredited archaeologist and historian.

Bartram claims to be merely an objective observer about Odyssey, yet devotes virtually the entire HHI website to publishing and spreading lies and mistruths about the company. (This often comes, sadly, at the expense of some HHI member projects that seem fairly interesting.)

He speaks of his disdain for rudeness and bad behaviour, yet sends out two of the most pathetic, vile, stupid human specimens to populate this planet to do his anti-Odyssey bidding. (We've devoted much space to the putrid reputations and actions of Smitty and Doc; check our archives for the dirt.)

Bartram never fails to rip Odyssey for having a profit motive as "treasure hunters" (a term he uses disdainfully), yet in an older version of the HHI website, he peddles media, archaeology and history services for sale, presumably not for charitable purposes, to...wait for it....treasure hunters. (And, as further evidence of his deep hypocrisy, neither he nor his website provides one shred of evidence of their expertise or credentials to offer such services. They also claim numerous "clients," yet no client list or projects summary is to be found.)

We think it's obvious what Bartram and HHI is all about. He can stomp about, arrogantly sniff, threaten violence, lawsuits, and days of reckoning, even raise an offended pinkie in protest, but he can't stop our efforts to bring you the truth about the history poseurs and their lying, misleading claims.

That's a perspective you won't ever find on HHI -- disagreement and dissension are strictly forbidden.

Happy 4th Ya'll!

Happy July 4th everyone!

As we celebrate this nation's historic defeat of tyranny and embrace of liberty, we're reminded of the need for constant vigilance to those who would limit our hard-earned freedoms.

As Ben Franklin wrote,“Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”

Sound relevant to today? We think so.

Now, back to the BBQ....

Feeling lucky punks? Are ya?

Is there a better way to resolve a complex issue of marine archaeology than to simply pop a cap in some one's ass?

We think so, but the suddenly tough-talking Twits over at HHI apparently endorse the more aggressive approach. Twice today the issue of shooting or threatening others with guns appeared on the poseurs' website. All in good fun, you say? Not when you consider the sources.

In the first instance, which we reported earlier today, Old Toughie Bartram (we strive to make our hero Wodehouse proud), who has made several online references to physically assaulting those he disagrees with (translation: he's a bigger pussy than Garfield), today wrote about a hypothetical run-in with Odyssey, with a grim result:

Solomon: "Personally, if somebody turns up on one of our sites waving a piece of paper and shouting at me, they are at risk of getting shot."

Shot with what Bartram? A bitchy glare? Ooooh, that sounds positively venomous.

"SatDiver" (smithvi2003, Smitty, gldn_fleez), so desperately eager to ingratiate himself to the Queen Bee, buzzed about with similar threats. Hilariously, though, and showing a complete lack of imagination, he posts virtually the same scenario as Master Bartram, with the same predictable outcome:

SatDiver: "You can show up to a recovery operation, show them your piece of paper, with No location shown, and tell them that they are on your site, and that they have to leave.There are many groups operating out there that I would not suggest trying that with...."

Which he follows with...take a guess...that's right: A photo of a guy playing with all kinds of nasty-looking boom sticks (i.e., big ass machine guns). We know, we know: Pathetic. (Of the beyond words variety.)

Now, most of you are already grossly familiar with SatDiver Smitty's way with "subtlety." His years of Yahoo posts, detailed in our recent profile, revealed a vile penchant for insults featuring pedophilia, bestiality, incest, but also uber-creepy stalking of female posters and the cowardly harassment of a Vietnam vet. As we said then: this guy's a piece of work. (HHI should be really proud of such stellar associations.)

Does HHI honestly expect to be taken seriously by the adult world, especially the niche that focuses on the fairly narrow, restricted field of marine archaeology, with this kind of asinine behavior?

Ah well...it's ultimately of no concern to us how the world perceives HHI; we do this for our own and hopefully others' amusement. And while we'll refrain from threatening to shoot anyone, you can count on us to continue carving up poseur ass. Strictly metaphorically speaking, mind you.

A challenge for Indiana Bartram

We see the Angry Twit's threatening violence again over at HHI, this time saying he's going to shoot someone for simply waving a piece of paper at him, but the tough-guy act aside (in real life he's a confirmed prancing coward), check this out:

Solomon: "We, History Hunters, also participate in nautical archaeology."

Is that right?

Okay, because we know you and your members read us, we'll bite: Name one, just one, nautical archaeology project HHI has ever worked on. Provide a link, a summary, a report, anything to show your work in the field. And don't be throwing Doc's finding a couple of old twigs on the ocean bottom at us either. All that's good for is a laugh over a couple rum and cokes, otherwise you'd still be promoting it on your website.

We're talking about any project on par with what Odyssey has accomplished.

Of course, you won't, because you can't. You should know by now, Bartram, that simply promoting yourself as an archaeologist or historian doesn't make it so. Now, refer to yourself as a rank amateur, and we'll let you have your little moment of glory. Until, that time, why don't you shut your yap?

We're waiting....

Decipher this...

HHI's pseudo intellectuals are again trying to connect spiritualism, paranormal activities, religion, Mormonism, PT Barnum-ism, Bartram's Stupid-ism (okay, we threw that last one in there), to make an exceedingly weak case using highly selective bits of U.S. history to justify their obsessive hatred of treasure hunting, and more specifically, Odyssey.

They insist, with thoroughly unconvincing evidence, that the so-called "fraud" of treasure hunting is a uniquely American phenomenon. (Of course, we all know there's no such thing as a gullible Brit. Just ask Neville Chamberlain, and he only cost what, a few hundred thousand lives?) We're inclined, however, to see these HHI's efforts for their true purpose: to bash Americans -- their second favorite pastime.

The Angry Twit Bartram started this boring monologue with himself a while ago, but seemed to lose steam, probably because he bored himself to death, or more likely, he exhausted his sherry supply. Perhaps both. Hey, it's a lot of work posting all those pretty pictures online (for if he doesn't make it like a comic book, Doc refuses to read it...it's not a lot unlike them having to pour whiskey on garnishes to get him to eat his fruits and veggies.)

Regardless, the conversation is picking up again, much to our amusement. The latest post is from "Scribe" (karma: 188) who quotes long passages from an obscure book about "enthusiastic religions" in western New York (sounds riveting, no? Think it has pictures?). Old Scribe bought it probably because he thought merely possessing it would increase his IQ a few points.

About the book (which has nothing whatsoever to do with treasure hunting, by the way), he writes:

"With (blind) faith an integral part of the process, it also explains how treasure hunting, US-style, studiously ignores science and reason. It also explains how critics of treasure hunters are attacked so viciously, for they are the heretics, or even the anti-Christ."

The soap-opera worthy dramatic second sentence, in addition to being a classic non sequitur, raises a question: Does HHI, who nobly claim devotion to history and archaeology, have a right to lecture others about the scientific pursuit of reason when it stoops to post an innocuous photo of a part-time Odyssey captain reveling during the holidays? And then have the little minions scurry off to post it on Yahoo (upon which it was immediately deleted)? Is this a point achieved through science, logic and reason?

Yeah, okay. Sure.

Be sure to drink some more of that Guyana Kool-Aid, Scribe. Your Queen Bee compels it.